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Ness' Contest History
Who is Ness? Ness is the spunky young lad you lead across scorching deserts battling offensive piles of puke lead by a ragtag team of aliens bent on world domination. Yes, that is Ness. Many may recognize him from his role in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee as the baseball bat wielding, psychic youngster. However, Ness was around long before his N64 debut on the Nintendo battlefields. And for all those who are thinking of the SNES classic "Earthbound", well...he was around well before then too. "Earthbound Zero", a NES game starring "Ninten" was arguably the first appearance of Ness. Sure, it wasn't the Ness we all know and love, but you do an image search for Ninten from Earthbound Zero and then you tell me that WASN'T the exact make and look for the Ness we all know, then you can prepare to have a bottle rocket shoved off your hindside. (That last sentence didn't sound quite as intimidating as once thought. In fact, ewwww......) Back on the topic at hand, Ness is a teenage from Onett who embarks on a journey to all 8 "Your Sanctuary" locations in the hopes of taking down the all-powerful Giygas. What may sound like a typical, ho-hum, cliche RPG story is well....twisted. Along the way, there are no knights in shining armor, there are no dastardly and wicked villains that bring about a sense of hatred and the enemies and bosses along the way aren't the ones you will recall from any Final Fantasy game. In the place of these RPG-mainstay positions is a debt-ridden band on tour, a cult devoted to the color "blue" and an assortment of enemies ranging from a ruler-wielding hippie to a clumsy robot that relies on eating sandwiches for energy. Yes, this is DEFINENTLY NOT the type of RPG you are accustomed to. And it's because of this that Earthbound has a cult of followers and why Ness has had at least an inkling of success in the Summer Contest. Ness represents the crazy, wild game of Earthbound and while he has zero character development and can only express himself with a smile, that's quite enough to give him SOME success in the Summer Contest. "All the info is there, except for the info that's isn't there." - Onett librarian Ness's Contest History Win-Loss Record: 4-7 Summer 2003 Contest - East Division - 12 Seed * Eastern Round 1 --- Lost to (5) Bowser, 24627 24.93% - 74164 75.07% * Extrapolated Strength --- 55th Place 14.94% Summer 2004 Contest - Midgar Division - 6 Seed * Midgar Round 1 --- Defeated (11) Jak, 40130 55.08% - 32733 44.92% * Midgar Quarterfinal --- Lost to (3) Auron, 28806 34.96% - 53602 65.04% * Extrapolated Strength --- 40th Place 19.14% Every dog has his day, and Ness finally had his in 2003 (not to say Ness is a canine...). After getting pounded into oblivion by 50 grand worth of votes against Bowser in 2002, Ness' sophomore campaign saw him face an easier challenge in PS2 platform hero, Jak. The match was very much in question due to Ness' smackdown from a year ago, but come gameday, the Earthbound franchise had finally earned it's coveted "first victory" in GameFAQs contest play. The ensuing celebration echoed from the town square of Onett, out to the graveyards of Threed and all the ways out to the Tenda tribe in Deep Darkness. With the party over, attention shifted towards a 2nd round match with Final Fantasy X badass, Auron and following that match, Earthbound was put down once again. Ness is the very definition of a cult character in this contest. He's not going to do anything but pick on the lowly scrubs of the contest and shine the shoes of the upper echelon. His Super Smash Bros. career has boosted his repuatation and if he continues getting more exposure in Nintendo's fighting blockbuster, then Ness' chances can only go up. As of now though, don't bank on Ness unless he's going up against some true fodder. Cult characters aren't successful in this arena. Summer 2005 Contest - Mushroom Division - 4 Seed * Mushroom Round 1 --- Defeated (5) Carl Johnson, 54881 55.14% - 44644 44.86% * Mushroom Semifinal --- Lost to (1) Mario, 15696 17.20% - 75566 82.80% * Extrapolated Strength --- 47th Place 18.81% Ness may have been destined for little more than an SFF beating like few other at the hands of Mario (which likely proves that almost all of his strength comes from the SSB series), but step back for a moment. Against CJ, even Lucid Faia (Lucid Faia : EarthBound :: futuresuperstar : Metal Gear Solid) felt that Ness stood no chance. So what does Ness go out and do? He proves that CJ, star of the most popular GTA game of all time is little more than another Jak. Everyone knows him, but hardly anyone cared about him. Ness was the benefactor of this, and on he went to his second-ever victory in a contest after many a user felt that he'd never win one after 2003. And with Mother 3 having recently been announced, Ness will clearly be a top tier character before long. ... A guy can dream, alright? =p Summer 2007 Contest - Division 5 - Fourth Group * Division 5 Round 1 --- 3rd place, 32413 25.42% - Liquid Snake, 35430 27.79% - Alucard, 35427 27.79% - Zidane Tribal, 24234 19.01% Prior to the contest, Ness was placed in one of the toughest fourpacks to predict, but it seemed that most people felt he would place second behind Alucard. For some reason, the idea was that being a Smash Brothers character grouped in with three PSX characters would help him out. This time, it turned out that SSB wasn't enough. He didn't even come close to competing for second place, showing that he may be a low midcarder, but he's not quite ready to beat some of the more well-known names out there. Perhaps those wins over Jak and CJ aren't worth as much as we thought, and once again, people have put too much stock into Super Smash Brothers. But with the very real possibility that Ness won't be in Brawl, he may have reached his peak. Summer 2008 Contest - Division 6 - Fourth Group * Division 6 Round 1 --- 3rd place, 22971 18.31% - Mewtwo, 52487 41.83% - Pac-Man, 31487 25.09% - Travis Touchdown, 18532 14.77% Ness had the bad luck of drawing another SSBM character in Mewtwo and gaming icon in Pac-Man. He wasn't even close to advancing here. But at least he didn't get last. Winter 2010 Contest - Jenova Division - 6 Seed * Jenova Round 1 --- Defeated (11) Geno, 43544 64.81% - 23647 35.19% * Jenova Round 2 --- Lost to (14) Big Daddy, 21649 45.64% - 25790 54.36% * Extrapolated Strength --- 39th Place 26.41% Ness finally beat an opponent by more than 60% even if it was to Geno. Big Daddy used his Bioshock 2 momentum to stomp past the Earthbound hero. Perhaps if Mother 3 is ever released in the states, Ness will do a lot better. Summer 2013 Contest - Division 3 - 11 Seed * Division 3 Round 1 --- 1st place, 12979 47.01% - (20) Locke Cole, 8787 31.83% - (8) CATS, 5841 21.16% * Division 3 Round 2 --- 3rd place, 4654 13.60% - (5) Big Boss, 14931 43.63% - (2) Luigi, 14638 42.77% Up against a Final Fantasy VI character that has not been in Dissidia and a very old joke character Ness was essentially a lock to win his match. Even then he was still able to impress as he almost broke 60% on Locke and 70% on CATS. Sadly Ness was pitted against another Super Smash Bros. character which means he was going to get crushed. Ness ended up losing to Luigi by more than he did against Bowser in 2003 and it was likely he cost Luigi the match against Big Boss. Category:Contest Histories